Angus Wilson was born in Bexhill-on-Sea, on the English south
coast, in 1913, the sixth child of impoverished upper-middle-class
parents. The youngest by thirteen years of the six brothers, Angus
Frank Johnstone-Wilson was a spoiled and petted child, who, by his
own admission, spent too much time with adults. His father, Willie,
was the descendant of a landed family on the Scottish borders, his
mother, Maud, the daughter of wealthy South African colonials.
Willie's indigence ensured that the marriage was a troubled one;
living erratically on Willie Johnstone-Wilson's unearned income,
badly invested, and further limited by Willie's gentlemanly tastes,
the family and its finances were never stable. After a failed
experiment at moving to …

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4746Sir Angus Wilson1Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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